My
work in extreme physiology, also called environmental physiology, is
the study of the human body in extremes in environment: cold, heat,
altitude, immersion, high G-forces, injury states, micro-gravity, environmental
forensics, Military maneuvers, exercise, high and low air pressures
(hypobarics and hyperbarics) - how to survive and perform better in
these environments and other work which funding sources have gone out
of their way to meticulously ignore. As a child, I sat in the snow watching
my father and grandfather walk barefoot over ice and snow to go ocean
swimming every day. My grandfather was the oldest member of "The
Icebergs" ice swimming club.

Scroll
down for rare photos and free articles about it all from high to low.
Don't miss the Dancing Penguin bio link at the end. Keep scrolling
and reading.

Fixing
Injury and Pain Research
Functional Exercise, Better Biomechanics, and Top Training

My
career as research physiologist took me to military, university,
and training centers from undersea to mountaintop to jet cockpit.
I was given the toughest assignments to find why common training
and rehabilitation methods don't work, and what does. Strong brave
men got hazardous duty pay just to have a day with me. Methods I
developed are now learned in school by doctors, trainers, physical
therapists, Navy divers, chamber operators, combat swimmers, police
and military, and top athletes. Doctors and fitness instructors
come to me as patients to find out why they have back and other
pain and what to do about it. I pioneered functional fitness
training. Click here for more on
Functional Training. Click here for Appointment
Info to learn top training for yourself or your groups. I was
the first to develop fitness programs aboard cruise ships, and was
told it would "never catch on" - photos and stories below,
keep scrolling.

"It
seems the movie heroine Laura Croft, played by Angelina Jolie, was created
based on you.
In case you didn't see it, think of a female Indiana Jones."
- Karen Kukurin, Los Angeles

The Fitness FixerMy Former Column of nearly 800 articles, plus TwitterWhen
Medicine and FItness Aren't Healthy, We Fix It, and Boy Do They Need it

For
more than four years, I brought my column "The
Fitness Fixer"(tm) to Healthline.com,
providing close to 800 articles - not repeating what "everyone"
says, but primary source research and information. My original research
and innovations in improving fitness and medicine to be healthy, developed
through years of study with thousands of patients and students. I developed
no-cost health to people and communities to be healthier stronger happier,
not through sets and reps of artificial "moves" or burning electricity
for artificial gym equipment, but human-power function and healthier movement
and everyday actions.

When Healthline stopped running my column in 2010, the company
archived most of the articles, keeping most accessible, but removed all
the movies I had made specifically for understanding the concepts, the interesting
reader questions and my answers, and almost all my photos and illustrations.
They also removed "label" tags which would have allowed you to
click a topic label to group all the many articles about one topic together
on one page. In 2012, for some reason, they cut each of the nearly 800 articles
into two-page articles, but changed many of them so the end is at the beginning,
with reference end-links in the introduction making many unintelligible.

If
you are a major Health Source who would like to run or syndicate this top
column,
tell me about your ideas - SyndicateTheFitnessFixer @ DrBookspan.com

INDEX
of Articles. I put an INDEX of almost all the article links here
on my site - Fitness Fixer Index.

Some
Helpful Topic Examples: Here are some of the short Fitness Fixers
- I hope they are still there when you click:

PREVENTING
NEED FOR SURGERY - Click this for a Fitness Fixer on Healthline on surgery.
I have found an archive of my Fitness Fixers on Blogspot,
that, for now, allows my Label tag to work. Click this link to
see a page with several of my Fitness Fixer articles on the topic of surgery,
with some of the photos and comments intact. Let me know if this still
works:http://healthlinefitnessfixer.blogspot.com/search/label/surgery

Free
Summaries of Fixing Pain,
Changing Fitness and Medicine to be Healthy -
Not all Exercise is Medicine

List
of no-charge summary articles to fix pain, and saner, healthier fitness
that grew from patient handouts that doctor colleagues asked me to write
to replace the ones they used for NECK pain, BACK, KNEE, DISC, healthier
STRETCHING, more:
Click the Office Page.

Short
summaries of some of my research on core muscle function, why crunches
and flexion-based abdominal training aren't best, and what works better:
Click the Ab syllabus

Years
of research developing functional methods to fix lower limb and knee
pain. See the results, including summary of one 11 year study:
Click the Lower Body Revolution
syllabus.

My research found
no relation between hamstring flexibility and back pain. That finding
wasn't given notice until other names in sports medicine found the same:
Here's some of my research on What hamstrings
have to do with it

Since
I was a child, I wanted to study science under the sea. I grew up to study
decompression physiology, diving maneuvers and countermeasures for SEAL
teams and combat swimmers, oxygen toxicity and exercise during submersion.
I lived and worked in laboratories underwater, competed
in cold water middle distance swims, taught SCUBA, studied the Ama-San diving
women
of Japan, and researched barometric effects on human performance.
I have studied
combat swimmers and done extreme swims with them for fun. For military survival
protocols, we blasted pilots in ejection towers and spun them in centrifuges
and other scientific thing-a-ma-bobs. I put men in vats of freezing water
to see how we can keep pilots alive after bail-outs and how to get
covert swimmers to their objective, and, I found out, an entire separate
topic to get them back again.

As
a SCUBA instructor and hyperbaric researcher working (for no pay, for the
greater good) at an underwater lab studying saturation decompression, we
opened valves of full scuba tanks and rode them underwater and at the surface
like bucking broncos. I studied thermal and decompression protocols with
the top developers of computer-modeled cold prediction programming of the
day. We made rebreathers out of hot water bottles. We rode bikes underwater.

I
found a bubble component to altitude sickness - back in the 1980s
and 1990s.

I
wrote my own grant to get the study, and used Doppler ultrasound
to detect and score decompression bubbles developed in the bloodstream
during altitude exposure during actual flights. A friend pilot flew
us in a Comanche. I Dopplered us both during several flights. Before
my work, bubbles were assumed to occur only after ascent from underwater
to surface. Altitude sickness was assumed to be from hypoxia. I
found bubbles when going to altitude from sea level.

With
this "pilot" data, I did grant work to study bubbles in
human subjects using a hypobaric chamber (altitude chamber) to simulate
specific altitudes and at specific speeds of ascent.

I reported my findings to the US Navy where I worked as researcher.
They did not like it at all because it would fix some errors and
the US Navy has no errors. I published some declassified info in
articles for dive and wilderness medicine magazines.

Before digital cameras you took a few snaps then waited to develop
the film to see what you took. We are in flight. I am removing a
precordial (chest) monitor from myself. The lab reversed the print,
making it look like I sat left seat (pilot). Funny.

Free
Articles: - SCUBA, Hyperbarics, Extreme Environments
From
my former column The
Fitness Fixer
on Healthline - almost 800 total articles. As explained above,
they ended the column in 2010 and removed most photos, all movies, reader
comments, and more. I hope these still load, let me know:

SCUBA
diving science and medicine. Click for my short and quick articles on
scuba
on Fitness Fixer (Healthline removed my labels that accessed all articles
by topic, so start with the above linked article and links on that page.
Also this
one) I may have found one archive allowing the "label" to work
- click this for most of the SCUBA articles together- http://healthlinefitnessfixer.blogspot.com/search/label/scuba

MARTIAL
ARTS - I just found a Blogspot archive where my "label tag"
works to group many articles on one page, some even with original photos
: martial
arts

FORENSIC
science and medicine - forensics.
I am Science Officer for the Vidocq Society (I'm "The Spock of
Vidocq").
A bit about this international cold case think-tank, only allowing 82
full members - www.Vidocq.org.
I was honored when they told me that when Vidocq has a case involving
severe environment (aviation/ cold, etc.) I am called in and they say,
"She's the Man!" For books about us see The
Murder Room , The Girl With the
Crooked Nose and other creepy true forensics books on my BOOKS
page.

No non-human animals
are hurt in my work, or used at all (except those wanting to play fetch
or sit in my lab coat pockets munching seeds). I have lost grants and
been turned down by medical schools of my choice for my work advancing
knowledge directly applicable to humans (not testing on animals). Healthy
Green Medicine.

Public
Education:

I
am working on a public education program to educate about diving and hyperbarics.
Watch this space. Qualified practitioners are invited to apply to contribute
in their specialty.

"I
can call you the "Peaceful Warrior" and defender of all that is
good in this world. Keep up the good work Paladin"- Derek Barrett

Rare
Photos of Dr. Bookspan's Work

I am private and spent
a career keeping personal information out of print. Finally, here are a
few moments to share:

Examining
Movie Star Christopher Reeve

with
Doppler ultrasound to detect decompression bubbles, and other medical checks
after
dives to film his television show about scuba diving.

Experts
in several areas of diving joined the show to explain the underwater world
as he dived and explored it. I
was his personal medical expert (this show was filmed before his horse riding
accident). The show never aired but we did great things.

I
had been in a paralyzing accident (more about
that here) and my crutches, scars, and body metal bothered them. We
did all possible to hide them.

Invited
to Dinner by physicist Dr. Edward Teller

at
a scientific conference.

Regardless
of politics, his enormous intellect and wit are undisputed. He told
me the inside scoop on why the public record of his interactions
with Oppenheimer was untrue.

During
the conference, he first scowled at me when we met, and asked in
his deep voiced Hungarian accent, "Vat do yoo know about rrradiation?"
My heart sank. My chance to talk to this great physicist and he
asks something out of my area. I stammered, "Nothing... sir..."

We
talked rapid-fire about medical isotopes, his family, radiation,
injuries (he lost a leg in a train accident as a student) and his
passion and knowledge of hyperbaric medicine. He quizzed me non-stop
on all topics until he furrowed his bushy eyebrows and roared, "You
LIED to me - you said you know nothing ... but you know - EVVERRRYthing."

First Dr. Teller quizzed me.
When I passed his tests, he invited me to dinner.

Dr. Lanphier asked me to live at their house with him and his wife
(Mom Lanphier) in Wisconsin in the dead of winter to work on several
studies. Dr. Lanphier was a renowned pioneer in diving physiology
and medicine, initiating many top US Navy diving medicine studies.
He had been very ill and when he needed someone to finish his work,
I was told he sat up in his hospital bed and said, "Get me
Bookspan."

Heavy
body braces were evident even under my thick sweaters, from my paralyzing
accident, later recovered. (I'm debating with myself to upload the
ugly photos of lying paralyzed looking like a spaghetti. Here
is a glimpse). Often I worked lying on the floor - the bracing
did not bend for chairs. It did not bother Lanphier, even when others
were not hiring.

As
we worked, instead me only finishing his life's work, he and his
wife got better, and we were able to do other and new work. No matter
what topic I asked him about, he had been involved in it in some
way, even the first liquid breathing studies. It led me to always
say, "All roads lead to Lanphier."

Photo by Mom Karron Lanphier

Worked
Over 9 Years with Dr. Chris Lambertsen (Dr. Christian J. Lambertsen)

at
UPenn's Institute for Environmental Medicine (IFEM). I hand-reduced
the data for his famous Predictive Studies Series. He believed direct
capture of physiologic parameters superior to automating, and I
tracked every data point straight from strip chart recordings, intimately
learning study results for each subject.

Dr.
Lambertsen developed the United States Navy's rebreathers in the
1940s for underwater warfare, including the first oxygen rebreather,
the Lambertsen Amphibious Respiratory Unit (LARU), and was a pioneer
in undersea medicine.

I
also worked on Dr. Steve Thom's pioneering carbon monoxide studies
and was on the Advisory and Review Board for the Specialized Center
of Research (SCOR) grant to investigate a number of areas in oxidative
stress and hyperbaric medicine, headed by Dr. Thom.

Photo courtesy of Dr. Lambertsen

Living
and Working Underwater

in
Saturation Habitats.

Since I was a small child, I wanted to work underwater. I designed
ocean habitats and underwater laboratories for school projects and
was told there was no such thing.

In
the photo above, I am entering the dry habitat from the ocean below
through the bottom hatch. I'm wearing a long surface supply hose
plus a small 'pony' tank. Yes, I wore blue jeans for diving.

In
the 2nd photo, I am also deep underwater inside the habitat lab.
A reporter who came to "get a story" about the lab demanded
that, since I am an underwater research scientist, I use a microscope
while in the habitat underwater. No explanations convinced her that
my work as a human physiologist doesn't use one. I could barely
remember from school how to turn it on. She insisted that I hunch
over it to look intensely involved.

My
actual work was not mentioned in the news story.

Command
Performance Teaching Medical Stretches

For
Lama Tenzin, Senior Monk and Principal of the Tibetan Medical School in
the remote region of Lo Monthan.

Back
then, people didn't exercise on vacation. I developed the program
and taught exercise on ships in the early 1980s with the first onboard
Parcours (free running all over the ship), yoga on the swaying decks
(good for balance training), scuba and snorkeling, stretching at
sunrise and sunset, aerobics in best 80s legwarmer style, dance,
calisthenics, nutrition, many programs all day for all ages in several
languages.

I
didn't get royalties on my programs but loved being out to sea.

Few
people owned cameras back then. Passengers sent me a few snaps that
I am starting to scan and put here

I got sun while stretching,
old fashioned, on top deck.

Worked
as Able Bodied Crew on Tall Ships

I
swabbed the decks, the toilets, the dirtiest of bilges.

Why
not?

Good
hard work in the hard salt air. The photo at right was sort of a
joke as they didn't let us swabbies take the helm. After the photo,
I went back to polishing the brass.

I
carried loads to ship when we docked in ports for provisions
each 2 weeks. We slept stacked on litters 4 high. We worked 6am
to midnight, 7 days a week. In between, I studied for my 100 ton
licence and dreamed about jellyfish. We sailed exclusively in the
Devil's Triangle.

I am at left. Hard work in searing sun and salt
scrubbed me golden. Fellow navigator at right.

Anatomy
& Physiology Professor in Mexico

at
a college to licence teachers.

I
think the entrance exam was getting up the mountain to school without
a nosebleed.

I
had been living in Mexico teaching scuba and working with locals
to start their own gym - more photos here.
I mortared and hammered to build the place itself and taught how
to teach classes. I worked until my Spanish was good enough to apply
and be accepted as Professor at the University level, living and
teaching entirely in Spanish.

Many
many funny stories. Ask me about them when you come to take my classes
sometime

Can you see me? First row with students (in neat
uniforms). Fellow professor at left.

Martial
Arts With the Fighting Horseback Muay Thai Monks and the Shaolin Monks

I
am a 4th degree Black Belt in Shotokan karate.

The pioneers and Masters were my teachers, including Teruyuki OkazakiSan,
who learned from the founders. We were later honored to study in
Japan.

Our
dojo (training hall) in Philadelphia is pictured at right. I
am first on left, then Paul Sensei (Sensei means teacher
in this context), who makes a fun optical illusion that we are all
short. Then our students in order of rank.

I
did years of
painful rehab after my paralyzing accident (not martial arts related)
using my own methods while all around me said I was unreasonable
not to accept I would never stand or walk. I started over as a white
belt, training for years until earning the black belt a second time.

Paul and I are at the Shaolin Temple (Shaolin Monastery) near Zhengzhou
in China. We were glad to attend before it was popular with foreign
tourists and before they had a cushy hotel there.

From
there, we traveled to the Chen Village, birthplace of Tai Chi, to
study from the source. It was a poor backwater with open sewers,
requiring a bone crunching trip by 4 wheel drive vehicle. More photos
and stories of this to come. Check back here, or with me.

I
trained Muay Thai in The Netherlands and then Thailand, fighting
in the ring there. A little about Muay Thai kickboxing classes I
taught at Temple University is here.

Years
later we traveled on our own to the far northern Thai-Burmese border
to the Muay Thai Monks on Horseback. They fight drug lords with
education and strength. The Monk (Abbot), the Kru Ba, is on horseback.
Paul is the tall one in yellow. I am in purple second from right.
We stayed with our friend Tiem Pon, pictured first on right. The
famous monk is her nephew.

Story
on my Fitness Fixer™ - Muay
Thai Monks on Horseback. The company removed my photos of the
monks and their jungle training when my column ended, so come back
here and see me for more. The young monks (nen) thought it was hilarious
that my hair is the same color as their Abbot's horse mane. For
some, it was the first time they laughed since their families were
murdered in border drug wars.

Martial Arts In
Japan With The Living Treasures

We
lived in Japan to study Martial Arts.

I
found work at a medical school and arranged for us to stay with
a family we had helped when they were in the US. We did long formal
paperwork to be approved to train Shotokan officially. We packed
language books and our Gis (dojo uniforms), and moved. Eleven days
later, the family could no longer host us, and we were instantly
standing in the street in a suburb of Tokyo, suddenly needing to
speak more Japanese than medical words and Karate.

Back
then, foreigners were usually not rented to, except in special foreigner
enclaves, but we managed to get a rare apartment in Tokyo. We passed
a small dojo and made brave to go in. We thought we could stay in
the back unnoticed. It was a style we had never done - Goju-Ryu,
The teacher said "You! You! - HERE!" We had to
go up front and prove ourselves. The kind teacher made room for
us in his class. After a summer of work, invited us to their training
camp (gasshuku) at Mt Fuji. We already had other plans, but changed
every ticket to make sure we arrived when and where they said. We
got to live and train with Morio Higaonna Sensei, who since then
is honored as an Intangible Cultural Treasure.

Worked
extra to study Shiatsu there. The Namikoshi Shiatsu school, one
of our training schools, has two statues; one of Tokujiro Namikoshi,
the inventor of Shiatsu and founder of the school holding two thumbs
up, and a second statue of a single thumb. We told the Japanese
that in English, "all thumbs" means clumsy, but
I don't think they believed us.

Breath
Hold Diving With The Japanese Ama Divers

Are
there not... Two points in the adventure of the diver:
One --when a beggar, he prepares to plunge?
Two -- when a prince, he rises with his pearl?
I plunge!
-- Robert Browning